Since rising senior housing selection has been finalized, many students are wondering how exactly the numbers played out. Since the University decided to limit the number of students living downtown to 200, where have the rest of the seniors decided to live?

At the conclusion of rising senior room selection on March 31, about 190 students signed leases, and the Office of Housing Services is still expecting a few more. Based on this, the University will be just below its self-imposed limit of 200 students living off campus.

As for the new South Campus Apartments, 293 rising seniors have secured spots in the new apartment-style housing. Due to the fact that rising seniors were able to pull up to three rising juniors into apartment-style living, there are also 43 rising juniors living in the new South Campus Apartments.

“Rising seniors seem to be mainly within independent living (Mods, Gateways, and South Campus Apartments),” Director of Housing Services Stephen Apanel said.  

The next housing option to fill up was the Gateways. As of now, 194 seniors will be living in the Gateways, accompanied by 54 rising juniors.

The last independent living option, Bucknell West (the Mods), will house a total of 18 rising seniors, despite mainly being a sophomore housing option in recent years.

Those seniors who did not secure a spot in these independent living options seem to have congregated in three alternate locations: Roberts Hall, Swartz Hall, and their respective Greek housing. At the conclusion of room selection, 37 rising seniors are planning to live in Swartz Hall, 60 are living in their designated Greek organization’s housing, and nine will reside in Roberts Hall for the duration of the fall semester before Roberts goes under construction in the spring.

Out of the above-mentioned numbers, 32 of these rising seniors hold a position such as Residential Advisor or Peer Advisor that guarantees them a room in certain locations.

“I was nervous with such a low lottery number [131] that I would be excluded from the new senior apartment-style housing. My fear was that I wouldn’t be able to experience that freedom as a senior, but thankfully there was greater availability than I expected and I will get the chance to experience independent living in the Gateways,” Paige Brennan ’16 said.

Room Draw does not officially conclude until August when every student has a room assignment. During the summer months, the Office of Housing Services will be responding to room change requests and working with students who were not able to select a room during Room Draw. In the next week, rising sophomores and juniors will still be going through the process of room selection.